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DOS demo show on T20! (Developers)

posted by RayeR Homepage, CZ, 08.12.2008, 21:06
(edited by RayeR on 08.12.2008, 21:20)

> (off-topic) What is your experience with iPAQ 214 itself? I was recently
> asked for advice whether it is worth buying or not, so your opinion would
> be very helpful.
Good and bad. I used previously ipaq h2210 so I compared 214 to it.
some highlighted pros/cons:
+much better display (640x480 gives pretty fine image, good for maps)
+strong backlight with optional ambient sensor auto adjust
+keep both CF and SD slot
+wifi
+USB host capability
+battery lifetime
+enough power for playing divx 640x480
+plenty of ram, and some internal flash

-missing IrDA (h2210 can be used as universal remore controller for home A/V)
-missing serial port on system connector but you can use FTDI232 USB adapter
-is larger (it could be made smaller keeping LCD size)
-plastic body (compared to older hx4700) but when you take a care it's not problem
-too thin stylus
-worse audio output (clicking when audio turned on/off, weak background noise)
-older series has poorly assembled LCD and protective foild and it was very hard to tap on screen (I got replaces entire PCB and LCD so now it's much better, I don't use aditional scr. protector)
-CF slot power management is some way HW or SW buggy. I got battery drain when CF insterted even during power off state. I contacted hp support and they tried to make me idiot to belive this is right. But after some effort on second visit of service center I got replaced PCB and LCD. But problem still partially persist. I can avoid it when I press reset button and then turn off PDA it will not drain the battery and it can stay many days with minimal droop. But once I access CF and turn it off it will get drained. I had bought 16GB CF which I also share with my digicam (EOS 350D) but if you don't need CF I strongly reccomend use SDHC which doesn't suffer this problem.
-OS (WM6.0) speed doesn't match much higher CPU speed (when I hold 1st time an iphone I wonder how perfectly smooth moving GUI can be made on slower system - shame on micro$of) -OS doesn't utilize the potential of large screen resolution, you just get big smooths icons instead of more objects on screen (there's a way to switch to true VGA mode but it may be too small)
-hp will probably not upgrade ROM to further WM

Despite a lot of minus (I can say it freely coz I'm not paid for a review :) at finally after about 1/2 years of using 214 I think it's quite good PDA and I will never return to h2210. I mostly utilized the better LCD (reading books, Ozi maps, GPS testing...) and WiFi and battery life. I also did soldered homemade USB host cable so I can connect FTDI serial adapter when needed, big PC keyboard and more...

---
DOS gives me freedom to unlimited HW access.

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